Reeves’ former colleagues still in banking will not be thanking her today. Bank shares fell overnight after an IPPR report calling for a fresh tax on the interest banks get from the Bank of England coincided with an FT story on the sector expecting to be targeted by the Chancellor. Everyone is extremely jittery amid constant tax-hike briefings from the Treasury ahead of the Budget…
NatWest shares fell by 5.3%, Barclays 3.8%, and Lloyds Banking Group 5.2%. Lloyds has 2.2 million private shareholders including “most of our employees,” who number over 60,000. Reeves’ old bank has been part of Lloyds since 2009…
Reeves’ old HBOS colleagues who still work there and own shares in LBG will have seen the value of their shares take a hit thanks to the ideas of the so-called “economist” hitting the press early. Panicked pre-briefing to tank confidence prior to a tax-raising budget is certainly a strategy…
Reeves’ new address has changed from “HBOS Complaints team” to “11 Downing Street.” Former water cooler chums can direct their complaints there…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”